science · 15 December 2000 · 25 years ago
In 2000, the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear plant was ceremoniously permanently shut down in Ukraine - more than 14 years after one of its reactors exploded in the world's worst civil nuclear catastrophe on 26 Apr 1986. The last working reactor, Number Three, had in fact been shut down the previous week because of technical problems. It was restarted, though not attached to the national grid and at minimum power output, so the world would be able to see it symbolically switched off. Chernobyl had provided Ukraine with around five percent of its electricity from its last working reactor. One by one, Chernobyl's reactors have shut down over the years. After the 1986 disaster, a fire stopped one of the remaining reactors in 1991, and a third shut down in 1996.
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